One of the very first questions I ask people is, “If you could have a dinner party with three living legends, who would they be and why?” Naturally, the legends that I choose are pretty much exclusively from the world of fútbol. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that Mexico is going to play host to the Legends World Cup, a new tournament featuring soccer’s biggest stars. It’s set to take place at the beginning of 2017.
The tournament will be comprised of 12 teams: six from Europe, four from the Americas, and one from both Africa and Asia. The reported representatives include Argentina, Brazil, U.S.A., Mexico, Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, England, Italy, Japan, and South Africa.
Forty-eight-year-old former Mexican national team goalkeeper Jorge Campos will attempt to lead El Tri to gold in the inaugural competition. It sounds like he’s got his own list of legends, too; “I want to see Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, and Ronaldo.”
Tamer Al-Saoud, a member of the tournament’s executive committee, stated that “it’s all about reviving history. Taking your kid, who’s grown up seeing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and showing them that we had ex-Germany captain Lothar Matthäus and the original Ronaldo.”
Raúl, Ronaldinho, Fernando Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Hernán Crespo…Wow. Who would you like to see featured at a legends competition?